Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 8 Feb 1990

Vol. 395 No. 5

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Border Charges.

Andrew Boylan

Ceist:

8 Mr. Boylan asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the customs and excise authorities charge £5 per truckload passing through the customs post on the Border between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. or between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.; to the fact that as this post is staffed in the ordinary way no extra expense is imposed upon the authorities in the Republic of Ireland; whether the charges are contrary to the ideals of the EC regarding the free movement of goods; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Mr. A. Reynolds

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that customs and excise attendance for the clearance of merchandise at customs road stations and, in limited cases, at land frontier posts on the Border with Northern Ireland, is provided free of charge between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on ordinary weekdays. Exceptionally, this attendance is given free of charge at Dundalk road station and at Carrickcarnan frontier post between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays because of the heavy volume of import and export traffic through the Dundalk area.

In the ordinary course, the clearance of merchandise outside these hours involves extra attendance by customs and excise staff and a charge — currently £5 per load of merchandise — is raised in such cases in order to recoup the official cost of this extra attendance. This charge is fully in accord with EC rules. It applies generally, whether in respect of goods cleared at customs road stations — where most goods are given customs clearance — or at land frontier posts, and it is not proposed to introduce exceptions to the charge to cover particular cases.

Mr. Noonan

(Limerick East): May I ask the Minister what extra staff are provided between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and the overtime payments which are entered into for any of the existing staff who serve between those hours?

Mr. A. Reynolds

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the hours I have read out are the regular hours and anything worked over and above those are regarded as irregular hours. Consequently, they continue to charge £5 for half an hour of their time, £10 per hour is the extra charge, and this will continue to be the practice. As I am sure the Deputy is aware, the Revenue Commissioners fix those charges.

Mr. Noonan

(Limerick East): Has the Minister any plans to remove this charge as we progress towards 1992 and beyond?

Mr. A. Reynolds

I hope that between now and 1992 we can make progress towards achieving our objective under the Single European Act to remove fiscal barriers.